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Self-Organized Criticality and Intermittent Turbulence in an MHD Current Sheet with a Threshold Instability

Alexander J. Klimas·Vadim M. Uritsky·Maya Paczuski
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Abstract

We report numerical evidence of a self-organized criticality (SOC) and intermittent turbulence (IT) symbiosis in a resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) current sheet model that includes a local hysteretic switch to capture plasma physical processes outside of MHD that are described in the model as current-dependent resistivity. Results from numerical simulations show scale-free avalanches of magnetic energy dissipation characteristic of SOC, as well as multi-scaling in the velocity field numerically indistinguishable from certain hierarchical turbulence theories. We suggest that SOC and IT may be complementary descriptions of dynamical states realized by driven current sheets -- which occur ubiquitously in astrophysical and space plasmas.

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Alexander J. Klimas, Vadim M. Uritsky, Maya Paczuski. 2009-01-08. Self-Organized Criticality and Intermittent Turbulence in an MHD Current Sheet with a Threshold Instability. https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0701486

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